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Skateboarding AIBO
psyconaut writes "Sony continues it's line of robotic pets with a new accessory: a $249 skateboard! Why on earth you'd actually want your AIBO to zoom around on a skateboard is another question. The U.S. AIBO site has it here, but the thing looks more impressive on the Japanase AIBO site. Other new AIBO products also seem to include, FINALLY, a self charging station so AIBO can feed himself."
a ROBOTIC skateboard! No actual physical effort involved - just sit on your backside and watch it!
Video Game cheats, hints a
Cause, really, nothing says "I'm a counter culture rebel, fighting the establishment" like an Aibo on a skateboard.
Visit Richard Gere's Ass Zoo
tcd004
When's the AIBO pooper scooper coming out?
Why on earth you'd actually want your AIBO to zoom around on a skateboard is another question.
If there was ever a question to which "because you can" is the answer, this is it.
"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance" - Derek Bok
I bet these things will be showing up for kids under the Christmas tree (or insert festival of your choice). I get a catalog called "Lifestyle Fascination" which rivals Hammacher Schlemmer for gadget psychosis. Sharper Image is strictly farm league.
The incredible thing is, this stuff really does sell. Really. Someone liked this stuff enough to post this article. And here I'd thought we'd hit the price/value nadir back in the 70's with disco and the Pet Rock.
How long before someone...
Hate me!
It Looks to me like it pushes it self along with its legs...couldnt you get the same effrct with a piece of ply wood and some skateboard wheels?
So it can finally chase cars, of course!
The only problem is the reaction of irate motorists being chased by an annoying, skateboarding robot-dog. Once they overcame their initial surprise, could they resist the temptation to brake and reverse?
Seriously, why are the Japanese so obsessed with robots? Whenever there's a new robot toy that has no real practical purpose whatsoever, it's usually the Japanese who come up with it. Why? Do they think they can eventually build a super-robot to keep Godzilla from whopping their asses every time he comes around?
The only reason I keep my Windows partition is so I can mount it like the bitch that it is.
....till people start making trojans for AIBO's and use them to attack people. :)
WTF was that!?
Oh, just another robotic dog on a skateboard..
Well... though these things fail to catch my attention just as much as 3d-screens do, I did some reading up on it... and... well - it seems to me there are a couple of things wrong with the whole concept (besides it being completely stupid ;).
;)
:| ).
/me waves a finger at Sony (NO, not the indecent one). "Shame on you Sony!"
First of, I am simply unable to see who the buyers are... Is it just me, or do "real" geeks look down on this stuff? Then who's left? Tech-geeks? Probably kids with (too) rich parents... which leads me to the second thing I don't get: THE PRICE OF THE GODDAMN SOFTWARE!
It seems, that you can modify your small doggish robot with some software... but the price is $ 449.00(!!) This puts it out of reach of most kids, as they wont be able to utilize it anyway. Maybe at a tenth of the price, the kids who get the robot in the first place can convince their parents to buy the software as well...
Hmm... anyone working on a open source program to replace the Sony stuff?
Ohh... and another thing: Sony should be ashamed of themselves for claiming that this is an example of AI! Really... the most advanced models (with the CPU clock speed of 384MHz) have only 75 responses. If it were to approach any kind of true AI, it seems to me that it would at the very least have to have a learning-routine and some storage (besides the 16 MB that can be used for stuff like storing snapshots...
Glue your Aibo to the roof of your car, then your Aibo can "drive" everywhere! Better than a skateboard!
Or, if you just happen to own a surplus AH-64D you could stick your Aibo on top (careful it doesn't get chopped up by the main rotor!) - now your Aibo can fly!
graspee
Why on earth you'd actually want your AIBO to zoom around on a skateboard is another question.
The first question is, "why would you buy an Aibo in the first place?".
Today, a skateboard. Tomorrow, whay about a Segway ?
...And go down to your local humane society and adopt a puppy instead.
For the price of the skateboard, you could have everything taken care of, including shots, and for the price of an AIBO, you would have enough money to feed it for its lifetime.
Though they probably will never be able to skateboard, a warm, loving puppy with emotions and feelings will warm your heart in ways a cheesy, overpriced piece of plastic toy cannot.
We are losing our humanity with our silly toys, and we need to get back to real feelings of love and joy.
Many dogs aren't euthanized -- they are instead killed for sport by sadists who run the pound. Right now, there is a mistreated, lonely, and cold dog in your town's pound that is meant for you -- go out and adopt it.
Speaking of skateboards when are we gonna get hovering skateboards like in Back to the future. /me crosses fingers
keanmarine.com
A close cousin of the skateboarding Aibo can be found here.
Amazing magic tricks
Another way to live vicariously through my purchases...I never could skateboard, but dog gone-it, my AIBO can!
I'll form my OWN solar system! With blackjack! And hookers!
I was at the Sony store in Chicago last arround christmas and I asked the guy there where the DAT recorders were at (this was before sony axed their dat line). He replied they don't carry such a specialty product at their store because they were too expensive to keep a stock. It was doubly funny as he was standing next to a carpet with a about 30 ABIOs running arround.
Scooters predate skateboarding by about half a century. They're not the same thing.
Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?
Skateboards, eh?
I'm just waiting for the day when all of these Aibo's get bored with filming their skateboarding, and start filming Aibos racing themselves in shopping carts and smashing themselves into a brick wall for kicks.
"Hey dude, you broke your left navigational antenna. DUDE, IT'S BROKEN. That's so funny dude! Yip yip!"
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
Because if you can afford to buy a $1500 AIBO in the first place, you can probably afford to dish out $250 for it.
(Paraphrased from TechTV's "TechLive")
That's not a skateboard. IT's a scooter of some type. on the website It is called a speedboard. It looks somewhat like a snakeboard but thr is no way it oculd be used to do any tricks (at least not without a pretty major ramp). TRicks are the main reason a lot of people skate and it just doesn't seem possible with this accesory
procrastination is a way of life aka i'll think up a sig later
Once they overcame their initial surprise, could they resist the temptation to brake and reverse?
This temptation will only be exacerbated by the upcoming release of the electromagnetic 'poon, which the skater Aibo can use to CATCH cars.
pi = 3.141592653589793helpimtrappedinauniversefactory7
I've been really disappointed with Sony's Aibo. The mechanics are beautiful, but the software is dumb. It can't learn its environment, it can't keep from falling off a table, it can't balance, it can't recharge itself (even with the new charging stand) and it can catch its special ball only under optimal circumstances. Considering that all those things have been done by other robots, and that Aibo has been out for a while, this is a low level of performance for what the thing costs.
Last week, I was driving out to get some donuts and I saw a dog running in the middle of the road towards the car. This isn't terribly unusual where I live, and I thought I recognized the dog, but it started looking less familiar as I got closer. At first, I thought it was a chihuahua (very common in these parts), but when I got close enough, I realized it was a puppy.
I stopped the car, grabbed it, and went on for the donuts. The pup was on the verge of starving to death. It had no fat on it whatsoever, and its belly was completely distended from worms. He would have only probably lived another three or four days under those conditions.
My wife and I took him in and got him all fixed up (food, water, shelter, shots, flea bath, dewormer, antibiotics, neutering, and lots of love and attention). He was obviously neglected, and for a few days he wasn't sure how to handle getting attention from humans.
The original owners, whoever they may be, are not getting this dog back. It could be the drug dealers who raise vicious dogs, or just an idiot who thought the dog was fat (from the worms), so should be put on a diet (not fed at all). I don't care.
In the former case, I hope the community pulls together to put an end to this activity. In the latter, the idiot should probably stick with an Aibo because that's about all s/he is smart enough to deal with. (And that's only if the Aibo is entirely capable of self-operation from the moment you open the box.)
bytesmythe
Hypocrisy is the resin that holds the plywood of society together.
-- Scott Meyer
That's great. I made it a quote of the day on my site, caution, inc.
Too bad I used up all my mod points today, cause you'd have gotten them.
jred
I'm not a mechanic but I play one in my garage...
exec1: How can we justify raising the cost of this new speedboard in order to make more money?
exec2: Well in the past, when companies wanted to make technology more expensive without adding anything useful, they packaged interchangable color face plates.
exec1: Of course! But that wont work in this case, what can we change the color of instead?
exec2: The handlebars?
exec1: The handlebars!
Includes interchangeable handlebars (orange, black, and white)
What a "feature", as if all the AIBO stuff wasn't expensive enough already.
Moderation Totals: Flamebait=2, Troll=1, Redundant=1, Insightful=6, Overrated=1, Underrated=1, Total=12. (not mine)
# Neuters it but gives it NEUTICLES [neuticles.com] so it won't know that it's been altered!
I'm sorry, but putting fake nuts on your dog so that it thinks it's still licking them is wrong.
Almost as bad as a skateboard riding robot pet... oh wait
Creationists are a lot like zombies. Slow, but powerful and numerous. And they all want to eat our brains.
is listed under accessories.
War-dog-walking, anyone?
The latest Slashdot meme.
I thought the $250 price tag was over the line, but after noticing that it comes with interchangeable handlebars (orange, black, and white), this skateboard is well worth it.
.smell my feet.
The Screensavers were talking about this a week ago.
The slashdot editors should be more interested in an Aibo that fetches today's paper.
Maybe then we can get News for Nerds, while it still matters.
Is this truly the only Earth I can live on?
AP is reporting that the legendary Tony Hawk is hanging up his skateboard, and moving on to bigger and better things.
When asked what prompted his departure from the sport, Mr. Hawk replied "I don't know how I can compete against this. I mean sure, the thing probably can't method to save it's ass, but that kind of cuteness just sucks the life out of the sport. I figure I'll just take up base jumping or something. It'll be at least a couple more years before that job-stealing, mechanical fleatrap can open a parachute. I hope."
We are losing our humanity with our silly toys, and we need to get back to real feelings of love and joy.
Who says you can't own an AIBO *and* a real pet?
Give me a break!
"And like that
I hoped I wouldn't live to see the day when life imitates explodingdog.
Can the monsters and the red robots be far behind?